The royal editor of the News of the World hacked Kate Middleton’s phone 155 times, he told the Old Bailey today as he admitted the extent of his intrusion was much wider than previously thought.

Giving evidence at the phone hacking trial Clive Goodman confessed to intercepting voicemails belonging to Prince William, Prince Harry and the now Duchess of Cambridge prior to his arrest in August 2006.

The Duchess of Cambridge, then Prince William’s girlfriend, was hacked 155 times by Goodman, while Prince William was targeted 35 times and his brother Prince Harry nine times.

The former royal reporter was forced to admit that his hacking while at the disgraced Sunday tabloid was much wider than he had previously disclosed after being shown his phone records from 2005 and 2006.

He told the court: “There has been no intention to deceive you or anybody else about my involvement in hacking.

“If anyone asks me an open question, I will give an open answer.”

He first targeted the Duchess on December 12, 2005, after he was handed her voicemail details by Glenn Mulcaire, and was still hacking her on August 7, 2006, the day before his dramatic arrest for phone hacking. He even targeted her phone on Christmas Day, 2005, the trial heard.

Asked how he got her details, he said: “Glenn Mulcaire offered them, she was a figure of increasing importance around the Royal family.

“There were discussions about her and Prince William marrying, moving in, settling down.

During the trial he has admitted hacking into the voicemails of another Royal aide, Mark Dyer, and also Tom Parker Bowles.

Goodman, who returned to the witness box after weeks of ill health, has now also confessed to hacking the young Royals, as well as Kate Waddington, a PR consultant to the Duchess of York, and Michael Fawcett, an aide to the Prince of Wales.

He said all the details for the hacks came from Mulcaire.

Asked by Timothy Langdale QC, defending Andy Coulson, why he had not disclosed these hacking victims earlier, Goodman said he had never been asked about them before.

“I’m not on trial for phone hacking, and I completely agree I hacked these people’s phones,” he said.

“But they were never put to me individually.”

Goodman, of Addlestone, Surrey, is not on trial for phone hacking and says he has been assured by the Crown Prosecution Service that he will not face further charges for this offence.

When presented with a list of hacking victims, he said: “I’m not on trial for hacking,” adding: “There has been no intention to deceive you or anybody else in relation to phone hacking.”

On his arrest in 2006, Timothy Langdale QC, representing Andy Coulson, said: “It’s the one thing you must have been more worried about than anything else that it would become clear you yourself had been hacking members of the royal family.”

Goodman replied: “I was terrified of the whole thing. I was mortified.”

He denies two counts of conspiring with Coulson and others to commit misconduct in public office.

All seven defendants in the trial deny the charges against them.

Earlier, Mr Justice Saunders addressed the jury, saying: “As you know we have been waiting for Mr Goodman to be fit enough to continue to complete his evidence. We have had to wait because he has been ill.”

He summarised Goodman’s evidence so far for the jury before Mr Langdale began his questioning.

18 thoughts on “Kate, Duchess of Cambridge’s phone hacked 155 times by Murdoch empire’s royal editor”

If the Murdoch empire does not even care about the privacy of royals, then how much worse things will be for the privacy of common people … like murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler whose phone was hacked by the Murdoch media.